Bibi Netanyahu Created a Monster Israel and Gaza Shoot Each Other With Rockets After Elections

Thomas Friedman is a geopolitical commentator for the New York Times and one of the most influential journalists of our time. He earned his spurs as a correspondent in the Middle East. So when it comes to Israel, he knows all about it. To make non-Middle Eastern experts aware of the importance of Benjamin Netanyahu’s election victory, he uses the following equation in his most recent column:

Friedman is not a lonely voice in the desert. The outcome of the Israeli election has sparked outrage in the Western liberal press. As the Financial Times writes today:

What happened?

Eighteen months ago, Netanyahu narrowly lost the election to a crass coalition of national unity. For the ambitious and power-hungry 73-year-old man, this was not only a narcissistic insult, it was a threat. He is still awaiting a corruption case that could potentially land him in jail.

The victorious coalition of national unity collapsed this summer and Israelis were again called to the polls. Netanyahu pulled out all the stops to get back to power and didn’t shy away from the nastiest tricks. Knowing that he could not gain a majority in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, with his Likud party alone, he joined two far-right parties – the Jewish Power Party and the Religious Zionist Party – and managed to achieve this. both to merge.

Majority thanks to right-wing extremists

Until now, these two parties have been outcasts in Jerusalem. Even conservative politicians kept their distance, and for good reason. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the Jewish Power Party, for example, sang “Death to all Arabs.”

Thanks to the merger, the two extreme parties, previously a fringe phenomenon in Israeli politics, unexpectedly became socially acceptable and the third-strongest force. Together with Likud, they now have 64 votes in the 120-member Knesset.

With his hell-born coalition, Netanyahu is now leading Israel on an ultra-nationalist path. Not only is the two-state solution finally dead, there is even a danger that Arabs with Israeli passports will be deprived of their citizenship and deported. We are talking about 21 percent of the population, one fifth of doctors, nurses and pharmacists.

On top of that. Netanyahu’s extreme coalition partners also want to completely annex the West Bank. At the same time, they will do everything in their power to control the media and also the Supreme Court politically. In other words, they mimic what Viktor Orban demonstrated in Hungary, laced with overt racism against the Palestinians.

Apart from mass unrest in and in the Palestinian territories, Israel thus risks isolation in foreign policy. The friendship with the protecting power USA will be put to the test. Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, reportedly warned Netanyahu during the campaign that a far-right administration could “seriously endanger” Washington’s bipartisan support.

New friends made in the Middle East thanks to the Abraham Accords – Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – were also able to turn their backs on Israel.

Bibi Netanyahu is often compared to Donald Trump. Israel is sometimes called a testing laboratory, also for American politics. Netanyahu’s victory therefore comes as a shock, and not just for Israel. Tom Friedman again: